Free Cash Flow Cows is a deep value bargain strategy inspired by the investment writer, Jae Jun at Old School Value. It looks for companies that appear to be cheaply priced compared to the amount of free cash flow they generate. In particular, they should be stable, cash rich companies where free cash flow is actually growing. Among the ratios used in this strategy is Enterprise Value to Free Cash Flow and Free Cash Flow to Long Term Debt. Jae Jun says: "When it comes to true profitability, forget earnings and EBITDA. Free Cashflow is by far the best number to refer to." Jae Jun's backtesting of his own FCF Cows screen found that it beat the S&P 500 in six out of nine years between 2001 and 2009. more »

Benjamin Graham NCAV Bargain is a deep value 'bargain' investing strategy based on rules suggested by legendary investor, Benjamin Graham, who wrote The Intelligent Investor. This is a simple value approach that looks for companies with a market capitalisation that is less than their net current asset value. NCAV is the calculation of current assets minus current liabilities. Ben Graham wrote: "You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. You are right because your data and reasoning are right." In a study by Henry Oppenhemier in the Financial Analysts Journal, the mean return from discounted net current asset stocks over a 13-year period was 29.4% per year versus 11.5% per year for the NYSE-AMEX Index. Ben Graham advocated buying stocks that, if they were to collapse tomorrow, should still produce a positive return because of the underlying asset backing. To reduce exposure to individual failures, he also looked for a margin of safety of about 33% and suggested diversifying between at least 30 stocks. more »

Charles Kirkpatrick Bargain is a rules based strategy inspired by US investment strategist Charles Kirkpatrick's work in his excellent Beat the Market. Kirkpatrick has established strategies for finding growth and value stocks. His bargain strategy concentrates on value and momentum factors, with a very precise requirement for the price to sales ratio. Kirkpatrick's testing of of relative price-to-sales ratio rankings found that it was most effective between the 17th and 42nd percentiles in terms of cheapness. Initial testing of the Bargain Model was promising but Kirkpatrick said that several more years of testing were needed before labeling it a success. Kirkpatrick wrote: "As a result of these studies of relative selection methods, I decided to create a new list, called the 'Bargain List' that would incorporate the best triggers found so far and would only include value and price strength." more »

Benjamin Graham Net Nets Bargain is a demanding deep value 'bargain' investing strategy based on rules suggested by legendary investor, Benjamin Graham, who wrote The Intelligent Investor. This value approach looks for stocks that are trading at such a cheap price that you could buy the whole company and sell off all the assets at a profit with near minimal risk. It does that by finding shares with a market capitalisation of less than net net working capital. The calculation makes allowances for the fact that in a fire sale of assets, only a proportion of owed cash and inventory value would be recovered. Ben Graham explained: "No proprietor or majority holder would think of selling what he owned at so ridiculously low a figure? In various ways practically all these bargain issues turned out to be profitable and the average annual result proved much more remunerative than most other investments." Remember, risky and potentially troubled companies will be found using the Net Net rules. Ben Graham suggested diversifying between at least 30 stocks. more »

James Altucher Trading Below Cash is a bargain investing strategy loosely based on an approach described by US investor and writer James Altucher in his book, Trade Like Warren Buffett. This is a deep value strategy that Altucher found was highly effective in periods of market distress. He acknowledged that stocks that are priced at less than the value of their cash present a challenge to investors. It is difficult to get an accurate view of how much cash is actually in a business, plus they may have broken business models or dis-incentivised management. The strategy looks for stocks with a market cap below cash, low debt, sufficient cash to cover the annual burn-rate and some stability in revenues and earnings. Altucher wrote: "There is always the danger that management doesn't care about the shareholders but instead enjoys sitting on the assets of the company and using it for their personal benefit. Diversification is the tool that we can use to reduce the risk of corrupt, or at best, uncaring, management.? more »

Walter Schloss New Lows is a value investing strategy based on an approach used by Walter Schloss, who was a disciple of value investing legend Benjamin Graham. The strategy uses value and price factors as its main rules. It searches for companies that are trading below book value, using the price-to-book ratio, and at prices that are close to new lows. Schloss said: "We want to buy cheap stocks based on a small premium over book value, usually a depressed market price, a record that goes back at least 20 years?and one that doesn't have much debt." Between 1956 and 2000, Schloss's fund produced a compound annual growth rate of 15.7%. In a 1994 shareholder letter, Warren Buffett wrote: "Walter continues to outperform managers who work in temples filled with paintings, staff and computers. And he accomplishes this feat by rummaging among the cigar butts on the floor of capitalism." more »

Benjamin Graham Defensive Investor is a demanding, deep value 'bargain' investing strategy based on rules suggested by legendary investor, Benjamin Graham, who wrote The Intelligent Investor. The strategy focuses on value stocks with good quality financial characteristics. It uses price-to-earnings as a valuation measure and looks for larger companies with a consistent track record of earnings and dividend growth, manageable debt and a high current ratio. Ben Graham wrote: "An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and an adequate return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative." Defensive Investor is a stricter approach than Ben Graham's enterprising strategy, which look for unpopular companies, special situations and 'bargain' issues. more »

Negative Enterprise Value is a deep value bargain strategy inspired by the writings of investment writer, Jae Jun. It looks for companies that are priced so cheaply by the market that their cash balance is worth more than their enterprise value (the sum of the company's market cap and total long term debts). On paper, these stocks present an arbitrage opportunity: you could buy all of the debt and equity using the company's cash to cover the cost and simply pocket the difference. Jae Jun says: "If done correctly, it looks like this strategy is hugely profitable, but it does come with a lot of volatility." Jae Jun's back-testing for the US market exhibited significant outperformance over a 10 year period. A word of warning: company cash balances change all the time, so it's essential to know precisely how much cash a company has got. Likewise, make sure all debts are taken into account when it comes to calculating enterprise value. more »